&quot;The most important aim of the foreign policy 1933-36 was to overthrow the treaty of Versailles&quot;. How valid is this statement to the Nazi foreign policy in this period?

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Introduction

"The most important aim of the foreign policy 1933-36 was to overthrow the treaty of Versailles". How valid is this statement to the Nazi foreign policy in this period? The Weimar Republic was declared on 9th November 1918, although its first elections were on the 19th January of 1919 out of the defeat of the First World War and lasted until Hitler abused Article 48 of the Weimar constitution in 1933 to turn Germany into a totalitarian state. The republic faced unpopularity right from the beginning. In June 1919, the German delegates were forced to sign the humiliating treaty of Versailles in which Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for the First World War (Article 231) and to pay ?6.6 billion in reparation because they could not afford to go back to war. ...read more.

Middle

The treaty only allowed Germany to have an army of 100,000 men and there were on average seven applicants for each place. The short term impact of the army reductions were disastrous, however in the long term this aspect back fired on the Allies as such a small army meant they could be trained to be an elite force, and it pushed people towards unofficial armies such as the Nazis. The Treaty of Versailles seemed to cause a very large amount of political tension, which could have been avoided if the treaty had not ignored Wilson's 14 point for most Germans the treaty was politically unacceptable to them, all it did was anger the German citizens and set the scene for another war. ...read more.

Conclusion

The germans thought that the treaty was simply revenge on Germany. This is suggested by the uneven application of self-determination, why was it only the German Empire that was disbanded? Also with the reparations, loss of industrial territory and shipping facilities being exported out there was no way Germany could cope, this greatening the economic impact. Transferring some wealth through money and industry was a small price to pay for the damage they caused to France. Also it has never been proved how much of the economic problems were a result of the treaty and how much were down to the government. The treaty of Versailles was which caused the most aggression amongst Germans, especially the 'war guilt' clause making the political impact greater and so for this reasons and many more contributing factors the most important ain for the foreign policy was to overthrow the treaty of Versailles during the years 1933-36 ...read more.

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